American politicians and pastors are twisting Scripture to justify Israel’s war in Gaza—betraying the gospel and enabling genocide under the guise of biblical prophecy.
The following editorial ran in the Tuesday 12 August 2025 edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
The Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza, killing tens of thousands of civilians—men, women children. Apartment blocks flattened. Hospitals bombed. Water and food cut off.
Even Beit Sahour, the last fully Christian village in Palestine, has been targeted—part of a wider surge of West Bank violence since the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack. In nearby Taybeh, another Christian village, Israeli settlers have torched fields beside an ancient Byzantine church, desecrated a cemetery wall, seized a natural water spring and destroyed pumping equipment. Palestinian officials report more than 1,000 West Bank Palestinians killed by settlers or soldiers, with attacks accelerating during the Gaza war.
The excuse is Hamas. But not every Palestinian is Hamas—just as not every Afghan is Taliban or every Iraqi a Ba’athist. Israel is leveling entire neighborhoods in the name of counterterrorism. What we’re seeing is collective punishment—war waged not just on fighters, but on families. And many American Christians are cheering it on.
This blind support exists because of Dispensationalism—a fringe 19th-century doctrine that has deeply influenced many American churches. Invented in the 1800s by John Nelson Darby and popularized through the 1909 Scofield Reference Bible, it was completely unknown in Christian theology for eighteen centuries. Dispensationalism teaches that God has two separate peoples: Israel and the Church. With Israel enjoying “most favored nation” status in God’s eyes, it’s treated as having divine diplomatic immunity to bomb civilians, bulldoze churches, and kill Palestinians and Christians.
Dispensationalists defend their loyalty to modern Israel with a single twisted verse: “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you” (Genesis 12:3). Senator Ted Cruz has repeated this line for years, warning that America will be cursed if it stops backing Israel—including sending $3.8 billion annually in military aid. Just last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson stood at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and prayed that America should “always stand with Israel.” But the promise was made to Abraham (“I will bless those who bless you [Abraham] and curse those who curse you [Abraham]”): Not to some modern secular state in the Middle East.
The New Testament is clear: “Those of faith are the children of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7), “not all Israel are Israel” (Rom. 9:6), “if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs” (Gal. 3:29), and “he has made the two groups one” (Eph. 2:14).
Theology like that of Cruz and Johnson isn’t just wrong—it’s dangerous. It puts America’s foreign policy at the mercy of another nation’s interests, turning us into a puppet on a prophetic string. It’s political Zionism wrapped in a prophecy chart.
Yet today, it shapes U.S. foreign policy and drives war support among much of the American church. It has even infiltrated the MAGA movement, turning “America First” into “Israel First.” “America First” means nothing if we send billions to protect another nation’s border while ours lies wide open.
This theology has consequences. It gives the Israeli government a blank check. It makes American Christians more loyal to a foreign state than to the gospel. It erases Palestinian Christians caught in the crossfire—ignored, slandered as enemies of God, and left under the bombs, mourning their children while American evangelicals donate to the government that killed them.
Criticize Israel’s government and some cry antisemitism. That’s nonsense. A government is not a people. Israel is a secular state. Opposing war crimes isn’t hatred of Jews—it’s hatred of injustice.
In dispensationalism, the gospel takes a back seat to geopolitics, the flag of Israel is draped over the cross, and “supporting Israel” becomes the ultimate act of faith, even if it means abandoning justice, mercy, and truth.
This is not what Christ taught. He didn’t die for a flag. He died for a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation—united not by bloodlines, but by faith. The Church is the Israel of God—not a political state or ethnic group, but one new man in Christ.
That truth should shape how we view today’s conflicts. October 7 in Israel was horrific. The hostages must be returned without further delay. But acknowledging that reality does not excuse the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation inflicted on Gaza. Justice demands we see both sides.
Christ calls us to defend the oppressed no matter who they are, not giving blind loyalty to any flag or government. When we excuse one atrocity because it was committed by “our side,” we trade the gospel for politics.
The measure of justice is whether it’s applied consistently. If our outrage depends on who commits the crime, then it isn’t justice—it’s partisanship dressed up as morality.